Those P2P Switch To F2P MMOs

March 28th, 2012, 05:30

In recent years, more and more games started with a P2P system have switched to F2P, such as Lord of the Rings Online, Ragnarok Online 2, Age of Conan, Lineage II, DC Universe Online, Aion Online etc. Since I am a poor student, I have already played some of them. Below is my three favourite p2p to f2p MMOs.

1. AION. The most up to date MMO to move from p2p to f2p. When logged back to test my f2p account, I had that feeling of a classic old game still with faster combat, wonderful graphics, character fun fly with glide functions, and so on. It really deserves to be my Top 3 games. And it is pretty awesome that there is no monthly subscription fee, no charges for registration and client, complete and playable storyline with so many quests, character development up to level 55 possible, etc. And according to the recent announcement, Aion UA will go F2P as well and some new nice features will be added into the new update 3.0. I think it is a great opportunity for Aion to bring back many old players .
Official site: http://www.aionfreetoplay.com/
2.Lord of the Rings Online. Made after the awesome book and film, it is a great game with classically styled over the battles, haunting music, beautiful graphics etc. And it proved the truth that P2P to F2P was definitely not a bad idea for game companies. As far as I know, after moving to the F2P model, it got a huge boost in player base population and also got the revenue increase by duplicated. I was not surprised of its huge success at all. It is one of the best classic MMOs on the market. Why not enter it if it is free?
Official site: http://www.lotro.com/
3. Age of Conan. A great F2P MMORPG with a ton of content. As well as LOTRO, Age of Conan saw 300,000 sign up after free-to-play switch, and got double revenue in first month. It once again proved that the F2P model was a great choice nowadays. It is really sweet that the magnificent world of Hyboria is free for all players to adventure in. I do enjoy the game for the most part. Because compared to other similar games, it is unchained and the grinding is kept to a minimumsuch.
Official site:www.ageofconan.com

I'm playing DDO since last October, and you can get through it without paying something imho quite good.
But, however, there are many additional "adventure packs" - some worthwhile, others less - that you can buy for those "Turbine Points" (Turbine is the developer), which you can buy in shops or online, so at one point I decided to "pay them back" for the fun they gave me by playing their game so that I have bought such a "Points Card" twice now.

And this is - in its essence - their business model - apart from the "VIP" thing, which is nothing but subscribing, as far as I have understood it.

By buying those "Points" (meta-currency), you become a middle thing between F2P and VIP : It's called "Premium", and it has a few more positive sides than just F2P, although not that many. For example you can have more characters per server (Premium : 4, F2P : 2).

I assume that other F2P games have similar business models.

—  Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius  and a lot of courage  to move in the opposite direction. (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
I'm playing DDO since last October, and you can get through it without paying something imho quite good.
But, however, there are many additional "adventure packs" - some worthwhile, others less - that you can buy for those "Turbine Points" (Turbine is the developer), which you can buy in shops or online, so at one point I decided to "pay them back" for the fun they gave me by playing their game so that I have bought such a "Points Card" twice now.

And this is - in its essence - their business model - apart from the "VIP" thing, which is nothing but subscribing, as far as I have understood it.

By buying those "Points" (meta-currency), you become a middle thing between F2P and VIP : It's called "Premium", and it has a few more positive sides than just F2P, although not that many. For example you can have more characters per server (Premium : 4, F2P : 2).

Originally Posted by Thrasher
Alrik, if I may ask, how many euros have you spent on DDO?

So far it's 40, simply because they don't have 10 Euro Point Cards there.

But I find this extremely expensive, to be honest, because with 1800 Points you can't do that much.

I really would have liked to have 10 Euro Point Cards instead - but they just don't offer them in retail (read : Gamestop).

And that's why I'm careful with them. I plan to buy only 1 for half a year, currently, which matches my usual/normal game-buying behaviour.

—  Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius  and a lot of courage  to move in the opposite direction. (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
I'm playing DDO since last October, and you can get through it without paying something imho quite good.
But, however, there are many additional "adventure packs" - some worthwhile, others less - that you can buy for those "Turbine Points" (Turbine is the developer), which you can buy in shops or online, so at one point I decided to "pay them back" for the fun they gave me by playing their game so that I have bought such a "Points Card" twice now.

And this is - in its essence - their business model - apart from the "VIP" thing, which is nothing but subscribing, as far as I have understood it.

By buying those "Points" (meta-currency), you become a middle thing between F2P and VIP : It's called "Premium", and it has a few more positive sides than just F2P, although not that many. For example you can have more characters per server (Premium : 4, F2P : 2).

I assume that other F2P games have similar business models.

So you started to run out of content and the "adventure pack" is like a DLC?

Originally Posted by CountChocula
So you started to run out of content and the "adventure pack" is like a DLC?

You can get all the way to level 20 running free content, but you won't want to. Purchasing an adventure pack is very similar to DLC—basically access to new areas with new quests. They've got a method built into the game (favor) that rewards you with free Turbine Points, so by running the free content on elite to get the favor you'll actually earn enough points to purchase an adventure pack or two. There's actually a player scam for gaining favor on an account (it's completely kosher, but I call it a "scam" because it's a kinda cheesy technique) to generate extra Turbine Points, which takes nothing but time and a willingness to grind.

Although I've spent somewhere around $200 with Turbine, I've been playing DDO for two years now and haven't wanted to purchase more than a couple other games in that time. My "dollars per gaming hour" is as good or better than your typical single player game and my "annual gaming budget" might actually be a little less than before I got into DDO.

Realistically, it's not a free game, but they don't milk ya unreasonably and it can be played completely free if ya really insist.

— Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
Dallas Cowboys: Great Season! / / Detroit Red Wings: Another rollercoaster this year?

I've been playing Lotro for the past few weeks for the first time in a couple years… and I really have to say the the game has truly devolved into a powergaming monotony devoid of any of the charm it had back on release. Turbine continues making the game more and more generic.

Another thing besides buying points is you do earn them while playing F2P. Not a lot but enough to get items or save for a pack. If you keep up with the sales you can get stuff half off, not often but they do offer paks a few times a year at half price.

As Dte said, the game is made to allow you to reach top level without any paks. And if you team up with others, you won't need points for hirelings. I think the game is well worth looking at. The first few levels are basic grind outs, fast and easy so you get better equipment fast and get level 4 pretty fast. After that it starts with harder and better quests with better end rewards. With the Auction House you can also buy good stuff with game coins.

— Bart and Corwin should just admit that when it gets down to it, I will have the final say.